Senior Principal Scientist Cryptography and Applied Cryptography Research

Senior Principal Scientist

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The Cryptography, ICAM, & System Assurance Department is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and practitioners driving innovation in the department's technical areas of focus, with particular emphasis in Cryptography;
System Assurance; and Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM). We develop and apply scalable approaches for systems and software, evaluate technology and solutions, lead and foster external partnerships within the communities we support, and conduct novel research and development. We serve in critical roles including:

• Aiding the Federal Government as a community in architecting and applying modern cryptography and PQC technologies to secure systems, software, and protocols.
• Developing strategies, assessing policy and technical constraints, and facilitating the deployment of cryptography solutions into cloud, hybrid, and on-premises infrastructures for enterprise and tactical environments. As senior trusted advisors and leaders within the cryptography and PQC community internally and external to MITRE, we apply our knowledge of industry trends, advances in commercial technology, and relevant industry standards and protocols to inform our sponsors' decision-making.
• Performing research and development, evaluation and testing and operational support for high-priority sponsor mission applications, MITRE Labs strategic initiatives, and MITRE's internal research and development program.

The department works across MITRE's cryptography portfolio which spans fundamental research, applied cryptography, cryptographic engineering, secure communications, trusted computing, confidential computing, quantum-resistant security, privacy-enhancing technologies, and cryptographic modernization. The department brings expertise in digital identity, ICAM, Software Assurance, and the security foundations for secure distributed systems. The department integrates cryptographic innovation with emerging disciplines including artificial intelligence, Zero Trust architectures, secure software engineering, resilient communications, trusted microelectronics, and quantum information science to address rapidly evolving national security challenges.

Roles & Responsibilities:

The primary roles and responsibilities for this Senior Principal Scientist will be successful pursuit of the following outcomes:

• Establish and execute MITRE's long-term scientific and technical vision for cryptography and secure computing foundations across the corporation.
• Define technical strategy and guide research investments spanning post-quantum cryptography, cryptographic agility, applied cryptography, cryptographic protocols, secure key management, privacy-enhancing technologies, confidential computing, secure hardware, trusted execution environments, threshold cryptography, secure multi-party computation, homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, formal verification, and emerging cryptographic paradigms.
• Lead the development of innovative cryptographic technologies that strengthen the security, resilience, and trustworthiness of mission-critical government systems while enabling operational transition across multiple sponsor communities.
• Shape national strategies for post-quantum cryptography migration and cryptographic modernization by developing approaches for cryptographic agility, enterprise key management, standards adoption, interoperability, and long-term technology transition.
• Advance the integration of cryptography with artificial intelligence by developing secure and privacy-preserving approaches for AI-enabled systems, trusted AI infrastructure, model integrity, secure data collaboration, and AI-enabled cyber defense.
• Conceive, champion, and establish new technical thrusts that position MITRE several years ahead of sponsor demand while advancing the state of the art in cryptographic science and secure computing.
• Apply formal methods, protocol…